Cambridge Amateur Radio balloon launch video

A video of the launch of the BallastHalo 4 balloon, which carried a 434.073 MHz beacon, is now available on YouTube in HD.

The BallastHalo 4 balloon launch set out to test the ballast subsystem for a future transatlantic attempt.

The aim was to maintain an altitude at approximately 25km for as many hours as possible. The balloon was launched at 3pm GMT 20th February 2010 from Cambridge, UK. The hope was to reach the 25km altitude that evening and staying at that altitude until sunrise. The heat from the sun would then cause the balloon's altitude to increase until it bursts.

Unfortunately it appears that the onboard GPS module failed shortly after launch (perhaps after entering the cloud in the video) and never recovered.

The video was taken using a Canon PowerShot SX1 IS. The actual launch was fully zoomed out, but the last video of the balloon were at maximum optical zoom in. You can see just how far it was able to zoom in from the panning out at the end of the video (from balloon close-up to the view of the cloud it was about to fly into).

Watch the video

The balloon is believed to have landed just west of Rotterdam in the vicinity of Ottoland, see the path at
http://spacenear.us/tracker/

Twitter
http://twitter.com/jamescoxon/

BallastHalo 4
http://www.pegasushabproject.org.uk/wiki/doku.php/
missions:ballasthalo:ballasthalo4

Feb 20 Amateur radio balloon launch Saturday
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2010/
balloon_launch.htm

Feb 13 Cross Channel Balloon Flight
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2010/
cross_channel_balloon_flight.htm

Feb 13 Cross-channel balloon flight update
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2010/
balloon_flight_update.htm